SW is the property of GL and LFL.
PerryRhodan the property of Pabel-Moewig KG, Rastatt
No money is made and no Copyright-injury intended, iÂ´m doing this just for fun.

Time:
SW-Universe: Time of RotJ, after Han Solos rescue from Jabba, but before the final attack on the Death Star

PerryRhodan-Universe: 2662 a.D.

Continuity of the Hardcover-Novels fits till the final events of the M-87-Story-Arc with a few exceptions: The SolarEmpire stayed united, Roi Danton isnÂ´t killed and only a few people knew about his true identity, he carries now the cell(frequency)activator of his mother, everything else will be explained during the story.

For George Lucas and John Williams, as well as for Clark Dalton, K.H.Sheer and Johnny Bruck: Without you SF wouldnÂ´t be the same.

For those interested, you can find my other stories under the following links:

Works in progress:

Union of the Empire's greatest warriors (long)
http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=1301255
The Colliding of Empire's - a StarWars/PerryRhodan-crossover-story (long)
http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=1972709
The tale of Darth Vader's Son - a SW-AU (long)
http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=3410105

The two man were sitting in a room on the top floor of the huge wall-like structure that seperated the huge landing field of Terrania Spaceport from the buildings of the capitol of the Solar Empire.
One of them was tall, with a lean, muscular body, the brown-blond hair cutted short and with intense grey eyes. He seemed to be in his mid-thirties.
The other was of average height with broad shoulders and a body that seemed to scream "I love good food", despite the fact that most of it was muscle-mass and not fat. This man had water-blue eyes and spiked, red hair, cutted even shorter than that of his companion.

"244 million lightyears. Thats quite a distance", stated Reginald Bull, "Bully" to friend and foe, Marshal of State, Vice-Grandadministrator of the Solar Empire and oldest friend of the taller man.

"Not for a Dimetrans-hyperdrive", answered Perry Rhodan. "Of course we could have chosen a nearer target, like Andromeda our next neighbor, but why visit a galaxy you already know."

"Thats the adventurer speaking in you", commented Bully.

Rhodan grinned. "I would prefer the term explorer. It sounds more respectable."

"And i have to stay behind like always, doing the whole administration thing, while you and his Lordship have your fun. I nearly wish for a crisis, perhaps at the Eastside or with the Topsids, so you would have to stay."

"DonÂ´t cry for it. Things are quite for awhile and nothing indicates that this will change soon. During the last 200 years the peaceful exploration of space, especially outside our own galaxy left a lot to be desired. And of course we have to watch for possible threats out there."

Reginald Bull had to agree with his friend.

The last two great wars the Solar Empire had fought had been against threats originating from outside the milkyway-galaxy.

First the Andromeda-War against the "Masters of the Island", then against the "Uleb" and their forces. This last war had influenced
the destiny of three galaxies: The Milkyway, the Great Magellan Cloud and the Galaxy of M-87, 33 million lightyears away.

The war against the Uleb had been a turning point in the history of the Solar Empire. During the last, desperate stand against the Uleb and their living ships, the Dolans, more than 90,000 starships of the Solar Fleet had been destroyed in a few hours. Huge areas of earth, venus, mars and the habitle made moons had been devastated.

Without the help of the Empires allies from the world of Halut this battle would have been the end of mankind, atleast in the System of Sol.

Ironically the 10,000 remaining ships of the Solar Fleet in this period of time had been enough to keep the other galactic powers in line. The last 200 years had been spent with rebuilding what had been lost in one day, but it had been another Solar Empire.

Gone where the enthusiasm, the optimism that had accompanied the terrans to the stars. It had been replaced with a grim determination.
"Never again" had been the new parol. The terrans had fortified and armed their empire in a way thought impossible before the war against the Uleb.

5,000 Starsystems, similiar to Sol now formed the core of the Empire, together with a network of 30,000 colonies and outposts.

The new SolarFleet consisted of 250,000 ships from light 100-meter-cruisers to 2,500-meter-Ultra-Battleships, not to mention the 60,320 Ultra-Battleships aboard the four Stations buildt after the m

The door to the room opened and a man stepped in. He was as tall as Rhodan (six feet, four inches) with broad shoulders, white-blond hair and the red eyes of an albino, although his skin was tanned.

"Ah, finally the great, old One of the Galaxy joins us.", stated Reginald Bull.

"Welcome, Atlan", greeted Rhodan slightly amused. "Bully and i were already afraid you wouldnÂ´t make it."

"And stay behind with Bully ?" Atlan snickered. "And who should prevent you from doing something stupid if not i. I simply canÂ´t imagine anybody else who would dare to do so."

"The reason iÂ´m late is, i brought two persons with me, that will accompany us on our trip", continued Atlan after a few seconds of silence.

"Do we know them ?", asked Bully.

"Yes and no", answered Atlan with a grin. Turning to the door he shouted. "You may enter, Gentlemen."

The door to the room opened again and two huge figures stepped in.

The bigger one was a non-human, three-and-a-half meter high with two-and-a-half meter wide shoulders and with short massive legs. Two long arms emerged from the shoulders like those of humans, a shorter pair of arms emerged where the muscels of a humans chest would touch the delta-muscels. Every of the giants four hands had six fingers. The head of the creature was a halfsphere with a diameter of fifty centimetres on the base. The three glowing red eyes contrasted to the black skin, together with the white of the huge teeth in the beings broad mouth. It was clad in a green battlesuit and boots. This creature was a Halut and a well known one, too.

Roaring with a deep voice, causing the walls to shake, the huge non-human stepped towards Perry Rhodan. Everyone who wasnÂ´t familier with Halutans would have thought it was going to attack the, by comparisan small human, while in reality the noises coming from its great mouth were sounds of pleasure and joy.

"Icho Tolot", said Rhodan with a smile. "I shouldnÂ´t be to surprised that you wish to acommpany us."

"Rhodanos", Tolot had reached the human. Carefully he lifted Rhodan up and hugged him, what caused Rhodan to gulp. Halutans were incredibly strong. "So my little ones again search the unknown in the vastness of space and of course i will join them in their adventures."

"Yes, of course", Rhodan tried to catch his breath. "But would you please let me down old friend or weÂ´ll have to delay our take off again."

"Oh, excuse me. We know each other so long i sometimes forget how fragile you humans are."

Rhodan turned to the Atlans other companion. Somehow the man seemed familiar.

It was an ertrusan, what meant that he was a genetically engineered human, two-and-a-half metre high, two-meter wide shoulders and with red-brown skin. For an ertrusian with an average weight of 800 kilograms or 1,650 american pounds thanks to the high gravity of 3,4 g on their homeplanet he seemed to be a bit slender.

"And you are ?" asked Rhodan.

"Perry, Bully, may i introduce to you USO-Specialist, Major Tokar Kasom. Major Kasom, Perry Rhodan, the Grandadministrator, Reginald Bull, Marshal of State." explained Atlan. The colonial-terran bowed polite.

"IÂ´m the one who is honoured. Your father was a good friend and his death left quite a gap."

"Yes and he left very big footsteps to fill."

"DonÂ´t worry about that. If you are only as half as good as him youÂ´ll fill them."

"Thank you."

For a short while the men chatted with each others, shared memories, and so on, to put it simple warmed up.

"Now whatÂ´s this business about a delay", asked Atlan after some time had passed.

"A delay in equipting the "Dantes Inferno", he pressed a button and a side of the room revealed itself to be a huge screen. The screen showed a part of the landing field where a huge starship was positioned.
Tolot and Kasom took a closer look.

"Looks slightly different than the typical Galaxy-Class", stated Kasom after a fe

In a galaxy 244 Million lightyears away, a huge, 3,8 kilometres long, cigar-shaped ship flew silently through the vastness of space.

It was accompanied by an entire fleet of smaller vessels, three of them with a lenght of 1,200 meters, similar shaped but with winglike structures, eighteen vessels that looked like a lying L with a length of 300 metres and six ships with straight lines as well as bulbuos structures on their front and at their sides, every one 600 metres long. Flying between them were even smaller vessels and dozens of fighters. It was clear, even to an unexpirienced observer, that the vessels of this fleet were buildt by different manufacters if not by different spezies.

The four biggest ships belonged to the Mon Calamari, the heavy cruiser "Home One" and the M-80-starcruiser, "Mon Cal", "Mantis" and "Mon Daron".
The other ships belonged mostly to humans: The L-shaped vessels were KuatDriveYards Nebulon-B-Frigates, the six ship with the lenght of 600 metres old RendiliStardrive-Dreadnoughts and the rest were Corvettes, Guns- and Picket-Ships from Corellia and other systems.

Those ships were on their journey to the Sullust-System to meet with other ships from all over the galaxy. Ships that belonged all to totally different species and people, but that were united in the same cause: To restore freedom and peace in their galaxy against the tyranny of their government.

Those ships belonged to the Rebel-Alliance.

In a room aboard the "Home One" a meeting was held. The members of the meeting were captains of ships as well as the leader of the fighter-squadrons. One of those leader was Wegde Antilles, a human from Corellia.

Wedge Antilles and his second-in-command Wes Janson were sitting together and discussing a matter of private concern as long as the meeting wasnÂ´t started.

"Still no message from Skywalker or the Princess ?", asked Wes Janson.

"No." answered the other man. "Not for a week."

"That is madness, i could have told them. A handful of people against one of the most powerful crime-lords and his gang, including Boba Fett, and just to rescue one man ... . I tell you, Wedge, this is madness."

"Perhaps. But they did things more crazy in the past and survived. And donÂ´t forget Luke is with them."

"Perhaps that concerns me the most. I like the kid as much as you do, but to confront a man like Vader alone was totally nuts if you ask my opinion."

But i donÂ´t ask for your opinion, Wes and ..., looks like they are finally ready to start the briefing."

All whispers and talkings were silenced when a Mon Calamari stepped into the room. The huge eyes of the creature passed over the assembled beings before it started to speak.

"Members of the Rebel-Alliance, iÂ´m commander Syllkar. IÂ´m the commander of the "Mon Cal" and together we will engage the enemy in a raid to get fuel and ammunition for our weapons. Fuel and ammunition for a battle that will perhaps decide the outcome of the war."

Syllkar stopped speaking for a moment to let the assembled men and women understand the gravity of his words.

"The target of our raid will be the impirial outerrim-depot Ord Frigass. And now to the details of our attack."

Commander Syllkar stepped foreward and activated the central holoprojector of the briefing room and the image of an imperial spacestation became visible:

The main structure looked like a star. Nine arms were extending from a massive centrecore.
In the background the image of a planet could be seen, Friggas.
A number of huge, blocky structures were visible between the planet and the station, the orbital-depots with the supplies for spaceships.
And two Golan-III and five Golan-I-Defense-Stations were flowing through the orbit.

As you all know the Rebel-Alliance could operate relativly safe here in the territories of the outer Rim, as well as varios pirate-groups and smuggler-organizations, thanks to the empires difficulties to project its power that far away from the coreworlds.

The ImperialHighCommand of course wants to change this and to tighten their grip more and more, they intend to increase their number of ships and outposts in the outer rim."

Commander Syllkar stopped speaking for the moment to ensure that everybody present understood the gravity of the situation.

Then he continued:

"The Empire wants to use ORD Friggas as their beachhead and over the period of the last half year it has become the support base for the equivilent of at least two sectorfleets."

Syllkar was interrupted by a sudden start of whispering and murmer between his audience.

The Mon Calamari could understand the concerns of the assembled officers and soldiers. Darth Vaders Death Squadron of Stardestroyers was bad enough, but two entire sectorfleets on the heels of the Alliance ...

Finally Syllkar was able to quite them down to went on with his speech:

"For the Alliance two of the goods in the storehouses of Friggas are at the moment most interesting: Fuel and Tibanna Gas as amunition for Turbolasers. As i said at the beginning of this briefing we are preparing for a battles thats outcome will be of great, if not deciding importance to the war."

"If this battle is so important, why are we already informed about it ?", asked one of the fighter-squadron-commanders. " I would think security would be most important in a matter like this."

"You are right of course, Lt.-Commander Varth", answered Syllkar. "But you are all informed to understand the gravity of the situation. Think of it as a added kind of motivation. As to the concerns of security... . Already from now on, no transmission to any outside destination of this fleet is allowed. All necessary communications are observed. From now on the protocol has to be followed to the point. This is deadly serious. We need the supplies from ORD Friggas. We canÂ´t do it without them."

Wedge thought about that. If that much fuel and amunition were needed the coming battle had to be huge.

Perhaps huge enough for the entire Rebel-Fleet to participate ?

Besides an attack on Coruscant he couldnÂ´t imagine anything else of that scale and the capitol planet of the empire was simply to good protected even for the entire Rebel-Armada.

But on the other hand he was just a simple Lt-Commanderand had to trust his superiors.

"How many ships will take part, when we visit the Imperials ?", asked Hoobie for him.

"The "Mon Cal", the "Mon Daron", six Dreadnoughts, nine Nebulon-Bs, their fighters, Rogue-Squadron, an extra-squadron of A-Wings and twenty-five freighters for the supplies."

"What about their defences ?", asked an officer from Sullust.

"As you can see in the holo, ORD Friggas is defended by Golan-Space-Defence-Plattforms. Immobile as they are, they shouldnÂ´t be as dangerous as an ISD.

Our cruisers will deal with them. Under normal circumstances ORD Friggas is guarded by two Stardestroyers, but they seemed to have vanished.

We donÂ´t know about their whereabouts, but their absence increases our chances at succeding.

At the moment the only imperial ships in the system that could offer any resistance are five La

The black vacuum of space was only enlightened by the twinkling light of the stars in this part of the Eastside of the Milkyway.
Nothing indicated that this territory was a security area supervised and patrolled by the SolarFleet.
The sole purpose of the fleets and outposts in this part of the galaxy was to have an eye on the different people of the Blues, Aliens that inhabited a huge number of worlds in the galactic Eastside. A species whose different people were fighting a civil war for over threehundred years now, after their major race, the Gatasans had been defeated by the Solar Empire in the year 2384.

The coded designation for this sector of space by the Solar Empire was MorningRed.

-------------------------------------

Suddenly the vacuum of space wasnÂ´t empty any more.

A huge spherical object with a huge ring-like belt had left the only mathematically descriptionable realm of Linear-Space, an inter-space between the fourth and the fifth dimension.
The "Dantes Inferno" had arrived at the sector MorningRed after travelling the distance of 2,318 lightyears from Terra in less than two hours.

Here they were supposed to meet with Roi Danton the "King" of the "Galactic Free Merchants".

The "Galactic Free Merchants" had been founded in the first decade of the 25th century, after the "Masters of the Island" had been defeated in the great Andromeda-War.

To set themself apart from other trading and merchant organizations the Free Merchants had given themself a very strict hierarchy in the style of ancient fudalistic systems and they willingly suffered every dificulty to stay independent from any kind of government.
Simple crewers of their ships called themself "farmers", officers were "nobles", the captains were "counts".

The entire organization was ruled by King Danton and a council of ten of the most experienced "Counts".

Now, twohundred-sixty years after their foundation the "Galactic Free Merchants" were the most powerful and wealthy group outside the SolarEmpire with a fleet of over threehudredthousand well-armed freighters.

For those who knew about certain circumstances, this situation wasnÂ´t without a certain irony.

Perry Rhodans children with his second wife Mory Rhodan-Abro hadnÂ´t followed their parents into politics.

Suzan the daughter had started a businesscarreer in the financial sector and achived to own and control a consortium of six great banks at the age of thirty-five.
Banks that supported the young organization of the "Free Merchants" with cheap credits.

Michael on the other hand had vanished after his training at the Academy of the SolarFleet, to make a life for himself without the burden of his fathers name - and became Roi Danton.

The "Galactic Free Merchants" were the most powerful group outside the SolarEmpire and their ruler was Perry Rhodans own son.

Inside the huge commandroom of the "Dantes Inferno" Rhodan walked to Atlan.

"Still no sign of him ?"

"No", answered the tenthousnad years old Arkonide. "But he said he would arrive at 11.30 and thats in one minute. Believe me he will be punctual to the second."

"I donÂ´t doubt that. Over the last twohundred years he made a habit out of it. Did he said with what ship he will travel ?"

"No, he didnÂ´t. He told me just its name. "Vasco da Gama"." answered Atlan with a dreamy look in his eyes.

Rhodan gave his friend a suspicius look.

"Let me guess, you met the guy personally ?"

Atlan closed his eyes remembering. "In the early 16th century. A good sailor and captain. Discovered the seeway around Africa."

"I know, i know, i had some history lessons too", interrupted Rhodan. When Atlan started telling stories from his and earths past he usally wasnÂ´t to stop until he had told the entire story. "Well, at least this time he didnÂ´t named his ship after a pirate. He..."

"Granted. Can you give us a picture of the "Gama" on the Panorama-screen?"

The Panorama-screen was divided in four parts and encirceled the entire commandroom. Every part covered one quater of the nerve-centre of the ship. On the part of the screen that showed the space in front of the "Dantes Inferno" the orb of another spaceship became visible.

According to sensors the diameter of the sphere measured 1,500 metres, the same size like a super-battle-ship of the Imperator-Class. Despite this, the "Vasco da Gama" was still dwarfed by the "Dantes Inferno" with its diametre of 2,500 metres.

"Curiosity. And the craving for adventures", explained Rhodan. "And perhaps the wish to spent some time with his old man for a while."

"I wonder from whom he has inherited that ?" teased Atlan with a grin.

"Not from me, thats for sure", answered Rhodan with a stern expression.

Before Atlan could respond, Takor Kasom walked to the two men.

"Yes, Major ?"

"Sir, his Majesty King Roi Danton and one servant have come abourd via transmitter and are now waiting at the entrance of the commandroom for permission to enter."

Rhodan sighed.

"And his Majesty has ordered you to inform us of his arrival ?"

"Yes, Sir", grinned Kasom.

"Well, sent him in."

Kasom turned around and walked to the entrance. Rhodan looked at Atlan who tried hard not to burst with laughter.

"Not from me, thats for sure", stated Rhodan.

A loud voice shouted through tÂ´he commandroom.

"Make place for the King."

A huge barechested Ertruser walked towards the centre of the commandroom. His face and his chest were covered with bluered scars and he wore wide, bluetrowsers and pointed shoes.

"Make place for the King", he shouted again.

Oro Masut, an Ertruser like Takor Kasom was at this point of time threehundred years old. For an Ertruser with an average live-expectation of fourhundred years he was in his best years. For Roi Danton he was majordomus, bodyguard, handservent and best friend.

Behind the huge figure of Oro Masut Roi Danton became visible.
He was of the same height as Rhodan, but there the similarities seemed to end. Roi wore his blackcolered hair at shoulderlenght in contrast to the white powder that covered his face. As usual he was clad in the clothes of a french noble from Versailles of the 17th century or what he thought a noble would have worn.

Before Atlan and Rhodan he made a deep bow.

"Bonjour, Monsieurs, Grandsigneur, Sire, Comment allez-vouz ? As your humblest servant We are delighted to accompany you on your journey", said Roi with a high, whiny voice.

"You are welcome", stated Rhodan with a cold voice. Before he had discovered Rois true

Wedge looked in the direction his second-in-command was pointing and watched as a little stiff moving Han Solo was lead by his Wookiee-Cpmpanion Chewbacca and one-time-buddy Lando Calrissian through the Hangar.
The trio was followed by the small, beautyful frame of Princess Leia Organa.

"Did what ?" asked Wedge,although he already knew the the answer.

"To rescue Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt", explained Wes.

"How could you ever doubt that ?", asked the leader of Rogue-Squadron with mild amusement.
"Solo is a Corellian after all."

"Hu, hu, all right Boss", countered his second-in-command. "But i donÂ´t see Luke Skywalker with them."

Worried from one moment to the other Wedge started to run into the direction the objects of his and Hobbies talk were heading.
Curious Janson followed close by.

---------------------------------

Han Solo was lead by his best friend and former best friend to the medical-bay of the "Home One".

Although his sight had nearly returned completly he still had difficulties with wide- and near sight as well as contrast.
And, to be totaly honest, the rest of his body still suffered from the half year of sleep in frozen carbonite enforced on him.

"Captain Calrissian, your Highness, please wait."

The little group stopped and turned to the speaker.

"Wedge Antilles, what a pleasure to meet you", Princess Leia Organa smiled at the man, who had become a close friend since the battle of Yavin.

"Lets talk about this again, after You have spent more than a half year frozen in carbonite. I bet you will not be able to walk alone."

"Hey, hey, allright. We are just reliefed you made it into Jabbas palace and out alive."

"Well, thank you. But i havnÂ´t done that much."

"Yes, the most part of the battle was shouldered by Luke", stated Lando.

"Speaking of him, is he..." Wedge didnÂ´t dare to ask the question.

Leia, who knew of the close friendship of the two men (after all, if being the sole two survivors of the attck on the first Death Star didnÂ´t forged people together nothing did) placed her hand in a comforting guesture on the pilots shoulder.

"Luke is alright", she explained. "He will come later. He said something about a promise he had to keep."

"You really donÂ´t have to worry", added Lando. "HeÂ´ll be back as soon as this unfinished business of his is taken care of."

Wedge Antilles sighed in relief.

"Thanks", he said. "For one moment or two i was really concerned."

"Really", asked Han, "how could you ever doubt that Luke couldnÂ´t return with us ?"

"Well", stated Wedge, "i think some concerns are allowed. After all, Luke is no Corellian.

This caused the entire group to laugh.

When they had calmed down, Lando asked.

"And what are you two doing here ?"

Wedge thought about it for a moment and deceided if he couldnÂ´t trust his best friends and one of the leading members of the Rebel-Alliance-Councils with this ... .

"We take of for a major raid", he explained. "Trying to get some Tibanna Gas and fuel for our ships."

"Yeah, we are visiting an imperial Moff and try to relief him of his stores", grinned Wes Janson.

From one moment to the other the "Dantes Inferno" and the "Vasco da Gama" left the realm of hyperspace, after travelling a distance of 244 million lightyears.

The were now in a position fivethousand lightyears above the galactic disc of their target-galaxy. Every kind of hypersensors and scanners, even the telescops of the astronomic labs were activated to collect data and to increase the knowledge of the Solar Empire about their future area of operations.

In the commandroom in the centre of the huge orb of the "Inferno" Perry Rhodan was talking to Atlan.

"It seems the Dimetrans-Hyperdrive has worked as expected."

"Of course. We have worked and researched more than twohundred years to develop and to improve the device we got from the Uleb. The last tests all have been satisfying and here we are."

"Yes, but i had some doubts. This was the longest and largest journey we did so far and everything has worked perfectly. I could become used to it."

Twohundredthirty years ago the longest distance a ship of the SolarEmpire could travel had been nearly five million lightyears, before his engines had to be replaced.
This was achieved with the so-called Linear-Drive.
Modern versions of this drive allowed to travel distances of twelve million lightyears.
This was enough for galactic distances but far to less for a journey of 244 million lightyears.

When the war with the Uleb and their servants had started the terrans had been forced to recognize that there existed another kind of faster-than-light-travel, the so called Dimetrans-Drive.

For galactic distances this drive had been to fast but for travels from galaxy to galaxy it was perfect. Or nearly perfect.

One of the original Dimetrans-Drives caracteristics had been the fact that the travelling ship had always arrived in the centre of a galaxy.

After the defeat and extinction of the Uleb the SolarEmpire had taken over the Dimetrans-Technology, but after the loss of more than hundred ships that left hyperspace in the astronomical chaos comen in the centres of most galaxies the scientists and engineers of the SolarEmpire had started to search for a solution for that problem.

And after decades of research they had found one. Modern Dimetrans-Hyperdrives were able to leave hyperspace everywhere its operators wanted to.

Rhodan thought about this before he turned to one of the operators.

"Would you please tell me what you have discovered so far ?"

"Yes, Sir", the man started his report. "The galaxy weÂ´re observing now is a typical dish-shaped galaxy with a diameter of nearly 121,000 lightyears and 400 billion stars.

Added to the natural signals we discovered microwaves of artificial origin as well as other signals moving with lightspeed and even hyperwaves from locations all over the area. We are still working to encrypt the hypersignals but the main bulk of the other signals we recieved were in the same language."

"You mean the same language was spoken in totally different regions ?", asked Atlan.

"Interesting, indeed", stated Rhodan. "The first hint of a united, galactic civilization, and even more special if we remember that the most of those signals are over fivethousand years old.

If we are lucky they stayed that way the last five millenias and are more peaceful than other people weÂ´ve met so far. I wonder what they could have achieved without the concerns of war."

"Not much", grumbled Atlan. "Without the driving force of fighting for survival there is no need for significant progresses. At least in the technological area."

Rhodan glared at Atlan.

"You are, and will ever be a cynical warhawk, Arkonide."

Atlan smiled sad at his best friend.

"And you will ever be a softhearted optimist, who believes in the good in every being, terran barbarian. Even sixhundred years havnÂ´t changed that."

Then the tenthousand years old Arkonide changed the topic, turning again to the waiting operator.

"How much sucess did you have with the translation of the recieved messages ?"

Inside his meditation chamber aboard the huge commanship Executor Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, second-in-command of the Empire, was thinking.

Thinking about the past, thinking about the future and thinking about the present.

Thinking about his own destiny in the bigger of things.

Finally he admitted to himself that something inside him had changed. Something that seemed to have sleeped for far to long.

Since the confrontation at Bespin with Luke Skywalker, the son of the man he once used to be, Vader remembered his days as Anakin Skywalker more vividly.

How much of himself he had discovered in that duel in his son.

The idealism of the youth, the anger against injustice, the hate, the desperation ... .

Especially the desperation when there seemed to be no way out, noone there to help in the hour of need, that suicide seemed the only solution to escape. Suicide ... or surrender to the Dark Side.

Vader sighed.

Of course there were differences between him and his son.

Luke had been divided from his friends through Vaders plotting. Anakin Skywalker by decisions he thought to be the right ones and still believed to be right.

After centuries of growth the Old Republic had become to big, to complacent, to be effectivly governed from the Capitol of Coruscant, impossible to administer.

Governors and Senators had turned against each other, bickering about privileges and political issues only they cared about.

The military and various police-organizations had been unable to maintain peace and order. Business Companies had buildt their own private armies, first only for defense, later to enforce their business-interests.

A strong hand had be needed to restore order, to restore the strenght of the goverment.
And this hand had been the later emperor Palpatine.

Vaders only ambitions during that period of time had been to become a Jedi-Knight, able to defend the rights and lives of the people.

Born and grown up the first decade of his live as a slave Anakin Skywalker knew about the hard realities of live, contrary to the sheltered uprising of most Jedi-Padawans.

He had always tried to keep his independece, to keep his own opinion, something the Masters of the Jedi-Council werenÂ´t used to deal with.

Vader had always been a man of action, tried to solve a problem as soon as he was aware of it.

For his taste the entire council lacked the nessecary compassion to really feel the needs and to know about the problems of the ordinary people.

His former master Obi-Wan had once admitted that, even before he met Anakin he had called him a "pathetic live-form". During that time they both had been able to joke about it, but Vader had it never forgotten.

Slave, pathetic-liveform, undisciplined padawan, Anakin Skywalker had been called many things during his young live and he had put all efforts to prove everybody of his abilities.

And of course he tried to prove to be a worthy consort for a queen.

Something the Jedi-Council hadnÂ´t liked too.

All of these things had lead at the end for him to break with the Jedi-Knights and to join Palpatine.

Now, nearly a quater-century later Darth Vader was sitting in his meditation-chamber and poundered about his decisions and the results they had lead to.

He had wanted a safe and united galaxy as home for his wife and their children, the power to free the slaves, to protect the innocent, to let justice rule.

Well, the galaxy was united under the iron fist of the empire, those who paid their taxes and obeyed imperial laws without announcing another opinion were safe, with exeption of some remote systems and the empire itself slavery was abolished and Darth Vader was the second-most-powerful being in the galaxy.

But without wife, child, home, trapped behind an iron mask to keep him alive and doomed to jump at every whimp of the emperor.

Not that he had problems with that, at least most of the time. After all Palpatine had restored peace and order to a certain degree.

He would have fallen to the ground if not for the helping hand of somebody of the crew who walked through the corridor where Atlans quaters were located.

Atlan mourned at the incredible strong grip of his helper, than his vision became clear.

"Easy, Sir", rumbled a deep voice.

Although alone the nearly bone-breaking grip around his arm was enough of a hint, the voice confirmed Atlans suspiciouns even before he saw his helper.

Before for him stood one of the genetically engineered humans, one of the ultraheavy giants from Epsal.
Nearly one metre sixty high the colonial terran was of the same wide as hight and looked like a strongbox on wheels.

Another moment passed before Atlan identified the epsaler as Ther Khein, acting captain of the "Dantes Inferno".

"Sorry, Ther Khein", he said. "It seems iÂ´m still suffering from the mind-imprit."

"No need for excuses", rumbled the bass of the officer. "It has been quite a load of information concealed in the imprit. And the imprit-devices have been improved to allow to transmit more information directly into the brain as well as with more speed."

"Really ?",Atlan looked up. "Somehow i wasnÂ´t aware of this. But on the other hand there are that many improvements and developments nobody can be aware of them all."

"Yes, Sir", confirmed Ther Khein.

Atlan rubbed his forehead and glared at Khein, remembering the bonderies of mind-imprit technology in the long gone days of the ArkonEmpire.

Mind-Imprit or hypno-teachings had been the comen way of learning new languages or matters of other, especially scientific, areas, but the method had had its disadvanteges.

Was an active mind-imprit interrupted before the closing end was reached the user normaly suffered insanity.

The Arkonides who had viewed themself as the most superior race had seen no problem with that as long every other species they encountered had suffered the same problem.

But when the Arkonids had discovered the terrans on their pathetic dustball of earth they had discovered with shock that the terrans not only survived interrupted mind-imprits unscatched but also were able to close the gaps in the different levels of knowlegde between the two people without problems.

Scientific skills, knowledge researched during millenia by the Arkonids and other things were absorbed by the brains of the terrans in a matter hours.

Using all of this in practice, the terrans had needed less than twohundred years to replace the already dying Empire of Arkon.

Atlans thoughts returned to the here and now.

"Am i right youÂ´re on your way to the commandroom ?"

"Yes, Lordadmiral. We have reached the territories of the rim of this galaxy and are closing in to a place we believe to be some kind of traffic knot."

"A traffic knot. Well, that seems to be the optimal place to make contact with some of the inhabitans of this galaxy."

"Thats the opinion of the Grandadministrater, too. However, he asked me to inform you that his Majestey Roi Danton and his servant have returned to the "Vasco da Gama" to explore independent from us."

"And Rhodan allowed it ? I donÂ´t think its wise to divide our forces at that point of the entire operation."

"Well, King Danton argumented that we can cover a bigger area if we split up. Besides if there is something strong enough to endanger one of our ships, it wouldnÂ´t matter if we were on two.
And the ship of the "Free Merchants" isnÂ´t obliged to follow our orders. Not without emergency."

"Well", grunted Atlan. "I hope we donÂ´t have to save his Majesteys royal butt, if the young man meets problems he canÂ´t deal with."

Two Mon-Calamari-Cruisers with a lenght of 1,200 metres, six into Assault-frigates turned Dreadnoughts with a lenght of 600 metres, nine Nebulon-B-frigates and twenty-five freighters of different size.

Furthermore another three X-Wing-Squadrons and one Squadron of A-Wings.

For the conditions of the Rebel-Alliance this was an extremly big fleet.

"Jump to light-speed on my comand", came the order from the "Mon Cal".

"Five, four, three,... ."

Aboard every capital ship and star-fighter the hyper-drives were activated. Where moments before the, from the rebels point of viev, huge fleet had been there was now only the vastness of space.

The attack-force had made the jump into hyper-space and was now moving to the Outer Rim Depot of Friggas.

-----------------------------------

The "Dantes Inferno" was moving towards the discovered traffic knot and had left the linear-space some lightyears away for a last orientation manouver.

According to the recieved messages the name of their target-system was Friggas.

-------------------------------------

Moff Mowet Darkol stood in a relaxed position in the centre of the huge orbital-station that formed the main complex of ORD Friggas.

Friggas suppurted the main part of the imperial starfleet in this sector with supplies, especially Tibanna-Gas and fuel.

A lot of space-docks and storehouses were positioned between the space-station and the planet and on the ground of the world even more warehouses had been buildt.

Over the past half of a year Friggas had become a key-position in the empires efforts to bring the outer rim territory and its inhabitans under control.

For far to long the rim had been a hidding place for smugglers, pirates and the cursed Rebels.

This should change soon, but in every case ORD Friggas was at this period of time one of the most important and biggest outposts that far away from the centres of the empire.

For the military and technical personal this meant long-time-service and Moff Darkol had allowed the men and women to take their famalies with them and to settle them on the planet.

This decision had caused some confusion at the ImperialHighCommand but the Moff had argumented that the empire
a) wouldnÂ´t have to pay for the transport and the exchange of its personal,
b) the Newcomers would change Friggas into a thriving colonie on their own (and, compared to other projects, with only insignificiant help from the Imperial Beruoe of Colonisation),
c) the comen moral would be raised on its own
and
d) traders and merchants would follow, what would lead to a signifiant economical increase of the entire sector with more incoming taxes and a need for imperial protection.

At the moment the population of the settled world was around twenty million persons.

Because their families lived on the planet and their children were growing up at the place it was in the natural interest of the imperial occupators to keep the area clean from criminals and other scum, what lead to a higher motivation and readiness to defend ORD Friggas unter all circumstances.

It was a totally new concept for the empire, but its positive results started the idea to spread, while on the other side this positive development was contradicted by the spreading ruthlessness and brutality of an increasing number of high imperial officials.

Moff Darkol knew about this and his disguest about it (and his foolishness to argument loud about it) had lead to his transfer from the core worlds to the outer rim.

Compared to other commanders he could call himself lucky, but working three years to the s

Wedge Antilles and Rogue-Squadron were the first to engage the imperial Tie-Fighters in the battle.

He and his comrades were in a difficult situation, because the enemy-fighters stayed in the cover of the cannons from the Golan-Defense-Plattforms.

The imperial commander seemed to suspect what the Rebels intentions were, leaving them only two options.

Either they attacked without caring about own losses and entered the reach of the heavily armed plattorms or they hold back and had to wait until reinforcements of the imperials would arrive.

In the first case they would lose a lot of good people in the second they would miss the goal of the entire mission.

Then the "Mon Cal" and the "Mon Mantis" moved foreward, towards the defense-stations and to the space-docks, concentrating the enemy-fire onto themself.

"To all units", sounded Commander Skyllkars voice through the comm. "WeÂ´ll try to destroy the defense-plattforms and to advance towards the supply-depots. As soon as we succed youÂ´ll have to attack the imperial ships. "Mon Cal" over."

-----------------------------------

Aboard the Executor

"Admiral Piett."

"Yes, Commander ?"

"We recieved an emergency-call from ORD Friggas. The outpost is under attack from Rebel-forces. They ask for reinforcements."

"Are they crazy ? What has happened to the two Stardestroyers that guard Friggas ?"

"Those ships have been ordered to Endor. We would have met them there, Admiral."

Piett stiffened, then he turned to the speaker, trying to hide his surprise. He hadnÂ´t recognized that Darth Vader had entered the bridge. "Someday, heÂ´ll kill me, even without those mystical force-powers of his", thought Piett. "Probably by a heart-attack."

"Mylord, i wasnÂ´t aware of this."

Vader seemed to look through him.

"You couldnÂ´t, Admiral. The orders were from the Emperor personal."

Vaders mechanical breathing seemed to accelerate at the mention of their all Lord and Master.

"It would have been to obvious to sent an entire fleet from the coreworlds.
Because of this our ships sneak alone and over a greater period of time to Endor, to give the rebels no hint, that we will be awaiting them there."

"You think the rebels want to equipt themself with amunition and fuel at Friggas before their attack on the Death Star ?"

"Why else should they attack there, Admiral ?
If their attempt to raid Friggas fails they probalbly donÂ´t dare to attack at Endor and we have set our trap for nothing."

Vader seemed to be more grim than usually.

"You mean, we allow them to succed ? And sacrifice the orbital-depot, the ships and our men ?" protested the Commander, ignoring the danger he was in.

"We are at war and a war always demands losses", explained Vader.

To his surprise Vader seemed to dislike the thought as much as Piett himself. It was one thing to execute Officers who have shown themself to be incompetent, another one to give over material and carefully trained personal willingly to the enemy.

"However", continued Vader. "If no reinforces show up, the rebels might get suspiciuos. Admiral, plot a hyperspace-course that takes us to Friggas, but in a way that gives the Rebels enough time to get what thea need, if they are not totally incompetent.

"Yes, Mylord."

Neither Lord Vader, nor the officers of the Executor, nor the emperor could know that the actions of a third party would lead all their careful planning to destroy the rebellion to failure.

--------------------------------------

Aboard the "Dantes Inferno", Commandroom

Atlan still rubbed his forehead, while watching the terran participates of their expedition.

The officers and crewers of the ship seemed to take the hypno-imprit of the foreign language that was commenly used in the new galaxy with less difficulties than himself.

"Thicksculled barbarians", he mused when the report came.

"Sir, the communication inside the target-system has increased with twohundred percent."

Wedge didnÂ´t wait for confirmation but turned his X-Wing around and moved away from ORD Friggas towards the endangered freighters.

Considering the situation he had came to the conclusion that things didnÂ´t looked good.

It had cost to much time to destroy the defense-stations.

The Golan-I-Stations for example were only a little smaller than a Calamari-Cruiser and despite only designed to fight starfighters and smaller warships they had an impressive fire-power with twenty-eight turbolasers and five launchers for proton-torpedos.

Because they were stationary targets, "sitting ducks" in the jargon of most pilots, energy normaly needed for drives and lifesupport-systems for the huge crews of capital ships not necessary on the stations could be used for weapons and shields.

On the other hand stations were unable to move out the way of enemy-fire and had to take the punishment they got.

Wedge accelerated with full power, gratefull for the relativly slow speeds Tie-bombers were capable of, what forced their escort of Interceptors to slow down too.

Otherwise Rogue-Squadron and the A-Wings wouldnÂ´t have a chance to save the important freighters.

-------------------------------------

Mowet Darkol was everything but stisfied.

He had lost his defence-stations and his three Carracks, the five Lancers and the Strike-Cruiser had now to face six assault-frigates, nine Nebulon-Bs and a slightly damaged Mon-Calamari-Cruiser.

The relation of starfighters on both sides was equaly unmatched, but who could demand fairness in times of war ?

With the Tie-Bombers and the Interceptors away, dealing with the freighters and persecuted by a squadron of X-Wings and a squadron of A-Wings, Mowet Darkol had fourty-eight Ties from the planetary garrison and twelve Ties carried by the Strike-Cruiser available.

Those Star-fighters had to face three squadrons of the enemies escort and the four remaining squadrons of the less damaged MC-Cruiser, in total eighty-four X-Wings.

Fortunatly the commander of the other cruiser had renounced to start his fighters before leading his ship against the defense-stations or the imperials would have to face another fourty-eight X-Wings.

Despite that things looked bad.

While the Ties were faster and more agile than the X-Wings they lacked shields.

If reinforcements wouldnÂ´t arrive soon ... .

"Attention to all ships. The Lancer-frigates and the fighter shall attack the enemy-figters.

Strike-Cruiser and Carracks shall execute independent from each other hit-and-run-tactics. Move into enemy-lines, fire with all cannons and run for your lives.

Concentrate only at one ship each run, the Strike shall deal with the Nebulons, the Carracks with the Assault-frigates."

Could work, thought Darkol.

With his fourty Turbolasers the massive Strike-Cruiser with a length of 450 metres should be an even match against the like a liieng L looking escort-frigates of the Nebulon-Type.

At least one or two at the same time.

The Nebulons were "only" 300 metres long, much more fragile and armed with only twenty-four Turbolasers.